Morrissey Says He Has No Problem with the Peanuts/Smiths-Inspired Tumblr Account

For a brief period of time earlier this year, a Smiths-inspired Tumblr account which spliced some dreary Morrissey lyrics into the dialogue boxes of Charles Schultz’s Peanuts characters went viral and even caught the attention of the official Smiths Facebook page—until suddenly reports surfaced that it may be taken down. Fans of the account quickly assumed the comic strip had infringed upon some sort of record company copyright, violated the terms of the Schultz estate or, heaven forbid, may have even ticked off Morrissey himself. Yesterday, Morrissey took to Smiths fansite True to You to set the record straight and let fans know that he didn’t take the Tumblr page down. In fact, he even enjoyed it.

“Morrissey is delighted and flattered by the Peanuts comic strip with its use of Morrissey-Smiths lyrics,” the site posted on his behalf. “He hopes that the strips remain.” There was some initial murmuring that Universal Music Publishing Group had been the culprits, but the site’s recent update also reminds fans that Morrissey is represented by Warner-Chappell Publishing. Hopefully the site can be resurrected in time for the release of Morrissey’s long-awaited autobiography, which is due out in the U.K. on Oct. 17 via Penguin Classics. But as Moz would say—these things take time.